


The Fall

by colorworld



Series: Usapho, Or Family [1]
Category: Black Panther (2018), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Hostage Situations, Hurt Tony Stark, NO rape, Other, Peter Stark (practically), Shuri Stark (practically), Shuri needs a hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, and kidnapping, but non conensual touching, pepper is a great mom, peter is an A+ brother, ramonda also good mom, tchalla just want his sister back home, tony and shuri science father daughter, wakanda nonsense is rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 08:09:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14564694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colorworld/pseuds/colorworld
Summary: Shuri continued to bleed out and slowly started to feel less of her body as there was a gentle wind coming through the one tiny glass-less window, as well as gravity complicating everything.Eventually, it looked like he started the camera.Shuri would swallow, but she couldn’t even do that.





	The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> eyyyyyyyy so there's xhosa in this and i used google translate so if you find a mistake please correct me thx!
> 
> So basically, it's a shuri hostage fic because im a monster. Hope you like it and yeahhh. Cool.

“ NIDYEKE NDHIHAMBE-MMFFFFGHHHHH”

 

They ripped the strip of fabric off her mouth. Was it better with it on? Actually, yes, because now blood dripped down her lip from being punched and slapped on the way to wherever the hell she was. But it was more than just a punch and slap. She had been personally excised from her home and thrown into some dingy truck to god knows where. They had snatched her and no one had gotten her back. She didn’t know why, because some of the most dangerous people in the world (Tony Stark, T’Challa, Peter Parker, and the Dora Milaje) were in the palace. 

 

What the hell happened?

 

Shuri made sure she looked furious. Even in the dark with dampness coating the scrappy room-hut-it was a hut, she realized. Who could know, though, if she was still in Wakanda, though, or in another country. Probably another country. If they were that desperate to capture the Wakandan Princess, than they had to get as far away as possible.

 

“You comfortable?” a voice asked. The figure came from outside of the hut to inside. Comfortable? You would expect them to tie her up in a chair, right? Wrong. They used chains and hung her from the ceiling, her body sprawled out.

 

“Being hung from the ceiling is not exactly what you’d call comfortable.”

 

He chuckled. “Good, actually.”

 

“Is there something you want?” she nearly yells. She wasn’t supposed to be here, she was supposed to be sleeping comfortably in her bed. If not that, working on something passed midnight in the lab or her room with Peter. The next morning, she’d eat breakfast with everyone she loved most and she’d go on with her day as she’d been doing for a long time. But of course, someone had to fuck it all up for her. 

 

“No, not necessarily, Princess-”

 

“You will not call me that-” Shuri growled.

 

“You’re just gonna sit here. Now what could you possibly think about here, alone with just me?”

 

“Shut the hell up!”

 

She was hung low to the ground, so she was at a level where it was easy for him to punch her straight in the face. Shuri made the chains cling and jumble as the blood streamed from her nose and her lip now even more. So much for a good skincare night. The face set Pepper recommended her worked really well. 

 

The man walked up and reached her ear. Shuri already wanted to shudder, already imagining his voice being that close to her ear. 

 

“I think you need to be quiet, Princess. It might be good for a princess to keep her pretty mouth shut for once.”

 

He nibbled her ear. 

 

Shuri violently shook and knocked him down to the ground. The man grunted out in pain, and pretty loudly. It took a moment, but he got up, and the look on her face was nasty.

 

So. So. Nasty.

 

She thought he was going to punch her again, but he instead went to a corner and grabbed something she hadn’t paid attention to: a camera and its stand. 

 

Shuri continued to bleed out and slowly started to feel less of her body as there was a gentle wind coming through the one tiny glass-less window, as well as gravity complicating everything. 

 

Eventually, it looked like he started the camera.

 

Shuri would swallow, but she couldn’t even do that. 

 

* * *

“Answer it!” Tony demanded.

 

Someone from the intelligence team did, and the scene was absolutely heart wrenching. Shuri hung from the ceiling with blood on her face. Out of everything in the world, this was one of the worst scenarios that could ever happen. 

 

He’d thought about it-dreamt about it. For Pepper, for Peter...for Shuri. He’d seen them being tortured or hurt or...he once saw Shuri dead.

 

And that was last night.

 

Since when did his dreams start coming true?

 

With a worried Pepper, Bruce, T’Challa, and Peter beside him, they stood and waited for anything.

 

“I’ve had a fun time with her.”

 

The voice made Tony’s fist clench. 

 

He came into the shot. T’Challa’s intelligence team surrounding him started a face search for the man, the cincuet not taking their eyes off the screen.

 

“She’s a good little princess, though.”

 

Tony nearly shuddered. Instead, his knuckles grew whiter.

 

The man walked up to Shuri and raised his hand. A tan finger went from the bottom of her neck down her collar bone.

 

“He better fucking not,” Tony grows very lowly. She was too young...Shuri was-

 

The man gropes her breast, but Shuri immediately shakes the chains, except the man doesn’t fall down to the ground, this time. He stops Shuri’s rattling and snatches her wrist. “You won’t shake” He barks.

 

Tony’s nails dig into his hand very deeply as it progresses. 

 

Shuri is punched and he grabs her breast again, kneading it in his hand.

 

His eyes fall downwards, Pepper muttering a cracking “oh my god.”

 

Shuri rattles every chain, her body jerking harshly up and down. “LET ME GO YOU BASTARD-AH-MMMFF-” She shrieks but the man puts a tie on mouth. 

 

“BBFFFHHHH-BHHBHH!”

 

Somehow, Shuri shimmied the tie off and shrieked something that would never leave his head. 

 

“BABA!”

 

The call ended. 

 

Tony felt…

 

Frozen.

 

Just frozen within himself and no getting out. Pepper’s worried voice was blurred, but he was still able to feel her cool hand on his wrist.

 

It snapped him out of it. “Huh?”

 

“We’re going to get her back,” she said, trying to comfort him. 

 

“Maybe,” he replied softly. But then, he took a big breath and forgot what he said. He couldn’t afford to think that way. It would eat him alive. “Yeah, we’ll get her back. Did the intelligence team get anything?”

 

“We got a name. Charles Sqazner,” a Wakandan woman replied. “He’s fifty two years old, caucasian male, an American.”

 

“Anything else?”

 

“He worked in multiple African countries for work. Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. He may be in any of these places with her highness right now.”

 

“Are you able to track the video to its location?” Pepper asks. 

 

“No, it’s untraceable, for some reason. It wasn’t that high quality of a camera, anyways, so it shouldn’t have high capabilities. Yet it is still able to not be found.”

 

Pepper is about to ask another question, but instead sees Tony try himself to track the camera. She could see it in her husband’s eyes how desperate he was to get her back. Not that it was wrong, of course it wasn’t! She loved Shuri, too, and she had never deserved to go through the pain she’d had gone through-plus this! 

 

It was evil.

 

Pepper wouldn’t forget that, and Tony wouldn’t either. 

 

She spotted Peter, though. Peter, who was near tears in his own bubble of depression. It was like half of him was gone, now. The two were the very best of friends-siblings, more like. Pepper still remembered the day they met. She was able to see the hearts in Peter’s eyes for the tech whiz. It was precious, but half of that moment was gone, now.

 

But she’d come back.

 

They would get her back.

 

Gently, Pepper pulled Peter into a hug and rubbed his back, softly telling him it would be okay. It had to be. Some of the most powerful heroes in the world were there. It wasn’t like they were incapable of getting her back.

 

But still, somehow, the man managed to kidnap her.

 

Everything was screwed up, and Pepper loathed it.

* * *

She’d fallen asleep, but was woken by the exact specific thing she feared:

 

Prying fingers.

 

Shuri was exhausted, her whole body in a terror she’d never felt from being held for who knows how long, and her neck in excruciating pain from hanging down. But she was as stubborn as hell. No one would stop that trait from existing. 

 

She smacked her leg in the man’s face. With all the effort she could use in her vocal cords, she screamed at him. ‘WHAT DO YOU FUCKING WANT WITH ME?! A PERSONAL SEX SLAVE?!”

 

The man grunted and got up. “Oh, princess, you aren’t even close to what I want with you.”

 

“Then tell me-you haven’t even told me your damn name!”

 

“Charles.”

 

“Then what do you want,  _ Charles _ ?” Shuri hissed his name. It felt like poison in her mouth just as much as it felt like poison to her ears for him to huskily harass her.

 

“Mmm I don’t think a sweet innocent girl like you needs to hear any ideas outta me,” Charles chuckles. 

 

“Yet you kidnap the smartest person in the world!” She snapped. Shuri knew her intellect and she wasn’t afraid to show it, especially to battle a perverted maniac like this man who stood-no, not a man. A monster. 

 

“Actually, princess, I think Tony Stark has that title.”

 

“You aren’t even a scintilla of good enough to say his name!”

 

“Let’s talk about him, actually.” Charles changes the subject, finally getting up from the floor and dusts off the minute amount of dirt from the floor. It wasn’t like a hut in the middle of nowhere was exactly immaculate. “Tony Stark’s been hanging around you, right? Yeah, he’s been making all your cute and fancy toys with you. You both smile and wave to the public with your brother, Pepper Potts, and Spider-boy.”

 

“Spiderman,” Shuri corrects in a mutter. 

 

“And that whole time, what did you feel?”

 

“Jubilant compared to being in this shithole with you.”

 

“Okay, you were happy. Were you happy before they came into your life?”

 

“Yes-”

 

“What was the last time you felt happy before they came around, because no, you were not happy before them. Perhaps it was when your father hadn’t been blown up-”

 

“You stop right there-”

 

“And perhaps it wasn’t when your brother fought your cousin, your brother nearly getting killed, as well as your cousin’s cruel death.”

 

“I didn’t even know Erik-”

 

“Your brother nearly died. He’s also king, and you were alone because why would a king have time for his little princess sister? Even your mother, Queen Ramonda, she has things to do too, you know.”

 

“I know you’re trying to manipulate me or brainwash me you can stop because it’s never going to work on me, bhentse emfene!”

 

“No idea what the hell that means but-”

 

“But if you were smart enough you’d know that I was insulting you! Maybe you’d know not to kidnap the smartest person in the world with the Earth’s mightiest heroes to back me up!” Shuri retorts sharply. But then came a fit of coughing. Her ability to breathe and talk was faltering. The chains was causing a blood imbalance, but particularly to her brain. Bruises were also digging into her skin on her wrists and ankles, and the bending of her arms and legs was just bluntly painful. It was hell. Shuri was sure she’d survive it, but it didn’t mean she was hopeful about when the confirmation of that would come. She was not sure at all when they would reach her. There was many ways they could find her. It would be especially quicker if there was anything at all she could use to hint of where she was or what was happening. Shuri had to, for her own sake. 

 

“How long has it been since you’ve started treating me like shit?”

 

“I’ve actually been treating you quite well in comparison to how I cou-”

 

“How long have I been here?”

 

“Eight hours.”

 

“When was the last video?”

 

“Four.”

 

“Set up another one.”

 

“And why should I do that, your  _ highness _ ?” 

 

“Because you’ll want to touch me again. Instead of doing that, all you’ll get will be a few good damn scratches to your stupid baboon face!”

 

Charles pauses. He pauses for that moment and remembers how she shakes him to the ground every time. Why feed into it? Or at least always?

 

Charles goes to set up the camera.

* * *

Pepper woke up from her and Tony’s Wakandan bedroom. Of course the bed was still empty. She wasn’t really upset about it because she understood what Tony was going through, right now. Shuri was practically his daughter, and his only one, just as Peter was practically his only son. When your child is getting hurt, you stop at nothing to stop their pain.

 

Even if you exhaust yourself past functioning.

 

Tony was doing that, right now. He’d eventually started sleeping more, getting six or seven hours, since they got engaged and married, but this ruined it all. That wasn’t the most important thing, of course. It was an observance. The most important thing was getting Shuri back. 

 

Pepper slid out of bed, abandoning the comfortable silk sheets and silver comforter. Wakanda was a peaceful sight to have outside your bedroom window. It was mostly dark, but the little colorful light there was had its beauty. It made the country extra comfortable when they stayed there. At this point, it was a second home after New York where she and Tony’s main home was. 

 

She was in pajamas, now, but she decided she should probably go check on the intelligence team’s progress. So Pepper tied her hair back at the nape of her neck and put on leggings and a heathered navy v-neck with her sneakers before exiting the bedroom.

 

Even before she was in the room, Pepper could feel that nothing had gotten any better. She could hear a conversation between T’Challa and Ramonda in Xhosa while Tony was doing God knows what. But she found out he was tapping and swiping on a map, pinpoints on African countries where Charles Sqazner had worked. That was true. She could’ve been somewhere like Zimbabwe or South Africa. South Africa, especially, was a criminal hub, so it wouldn’t have been surprising. Plus, Pepper could barely see it, but she could see that where Shuri was being held was African-looking, so Sqazner couldn’t have taken her too far. 

 

Not that she supported him by any means, but what a bad move. 

 

“How we doing?” She asked gently, putting her hand on Tony’s left one which held himself up against a lower screen ring table. 

 

“There’s nothing new, Pep. Nothing. Just the same info we have as earlier plus a bit of extra info on Sqazner like his birthday and where he’s from and too small of stuff to make anything of it. I don’t even know how-”

 

“Wait, we may have a hit!” One woman, N’Jani, says. “Just extra info, though. He worked for Lockheed Martin as well as Boeing at one point.”

 

“So he’s smart?” Pepper asks. 

 

“Yes, but he currently doesn’t work there, anymore. He now works at a car plant in Meridian, Mississippi.”

 

“How do you go from being on the top to working in Mississippi and then go kidnap the smartest person in the world?” Tony asks. It didn’t connect, to him. Sure, there were events like the Las Vegas Massacre, a rich and smart man goes and shoots everyone, but this had some differences. 

 

“When did he stop working at Martin or Boeing?” Ramonda finally spoke. 

 

“He stopped working there in 2014. It’s been a while,” N’Jani replies.

 

“Does he have a family?”

 

“A wife, Brenna Sqazner, and a son, Danny Sqazner. But they’re divorced.”

 

“Okay, so he’s really hurt from the split, having tough time?” Tony guesses. 

 

“Maybe,” T’Challa replies. 

 

“Yeah, but-”

 

“We have a video incoming! It’s live!” N’Jani announces. 

 

Tony tensed, but still immediately opened his mouth. “Answer it!”

 

The video was opened up onto where the map was. The couple plus T’Challa and his mother were terrified at Shuri’s state. They could see exhaustion plastered all over her body, and the crust of her bloodied nose and lip. Her eyes heavy with the weight of agony daring her to give up. 

 

“God…” Pepper whispers at the sight. 

 

“Ufunde kangakanani isiXhosa?” Shuri spoke.  _ How much have you learned Xhosa? _

 

“Ilunge ngokwanele,” Tony replies in perfect Xhosa.  _ Good enough.  _

 

“You’ve been studying,” T’Challa mutters. 

 

“Ndabona ixesha kwifowuni yakhe. Ziyintathu ekuseni.”  _ I saw his time in his phone. It’s three in the morning.  _

 

“Yintoni enye oyaziyo malunga nokuba ungaphii?”  _ What else do you know about where you are? _

 

“Yindlu.”  _ It’s a house. _

 

“Enye into?”  _ Anything else? _

 

“Hayi.”  _ No _

 

“Uya kulungile. Ndiyathembisa.”  _ You’ll be okay. I promise.  _

 

“Ukuba andikuthi kwakhona ... Ndiyakuthanda.”  _ If I don’t say it again...I love you.  _

 

Tony’s heart shattered. His hands froze where they were, as well as his eyes. His eyes stopped on Shuri’s, Shuri’s who were in pain.

 

He took a shaky breath. 

 

“Nam ndiyakuthanda.”  _ I love you too.  _

 

“Alright, enough with your stupid language shit, I’m not gonna take it anymore. I don’t care what you have to say to your sex daddy-”

 

Pepper had to hold Tony’s wrist down from punching the screen. 

 

“But Stark is gonna have to come and get his ‘lil slave if he really wants her.”

 

“Don’t you fucking call her that you bastard,” He growls. 

 

“And it’s gonna be very hard to find her.”

 

Charles closed it. 

 

Tony’s fists had become so white, and his nails dug into his palm. His teeth were clenched incredibly hard, and he didn’t even care. He cared about Shuri...Shuri, who was being called a sex slave. Shuri, who was being hung from the ceiling and being tortured. Shuri…

 

His daughter was in pain. 

 

And he wasn’t there saving her. 

 

God, he couldn’t even keep her safe in the first place. 

 

“That man will pay for that!” Ramonda nearly yelled. She was furious, of course, being Shuri’s mother. Ramonda wanted that man dead, and she wanted him-no. She wanted him to go on trial in Wakanda, and for him to be humiliated and shamed. She wanted him to be executed and he could not save himself. 

 

“Goddammit,” Tony whispered to himself. He sighed. “I can’t stop looking, Pep.”

 

“They’re doing everything they can, Tony. I’m worried about her, too, she’s pretty much like my daughter just as she is to you, but the exhaustion won’t make you work any better if you go any longer,” Pepper tried to reason. Tony needed the sleep, telling from how dark and heavy his eyes were. Hell, the exhaustion was in his voice. 

 

“But I need to-”

 

“You should rest, Stark,” T’Challa suggests. “I agree with Mrs. Stark that a tired mind doesn’t work as well.”

 

“Shuri-”

 

“Will be home safely very soon...Or I will go in myself and kill him.”

 

Tony just ended up working in the lab to find her.

* * *

 

Charles let Shuri down. 

 

She gasped for air and immediately saw the bruises everywhere. Quickly, she tried to get blood flow to her whole body, especially to where her bruises and indentions were. But it didn’t mean that Charles would let her free. No. He chained her to the cold ground. 

 

It was odd. It was odd, but she took it. Charles gave Shuri a blanket and a pillow. She didn’t say thank you, but she was internally grateful that she’d be a little warmer. But hell, she’d be incredibly grateful for Tony and her brother to bring her home. 

 

She dozed off, but only for a short amount of time. Shuri lifted her head from the pillow and looked forwards instead of the side where her head rested. There were four other men there, standing and talking. Two of them were black, but the rest were white and actually looked similar to Charles. 

 

One man walked up to her and ripped the blanket off of her. 

 

“Damn, man, you weren’t lying when you said she needed a good fuck.”

 

“Don’t you DARE!” She tried to scream in protest, but it was useless. He pulled down her shorts and yanked off her shirt, revealing her black bra.

 

“You gonna show me those tits-”

 

Shuri spit at him and shouted at him in Xhosa for him to get off of her. The man pushed her down and started to pull the bra down. 

 

It was actual pure luck that Shuri had seen a post on Tumblr that taught girls how to defend themselves from rape. She was chained, but she could do it. Shuri kicked his groin and then managed to get to an angle where she harshly elbowed his face. 

 

Two men are about to go at her, but Charles stops him. “Nuh, uh. Let him keep trying. This one is feisty. Really good pu-”

 

“DON’T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT ME THAT WAY YOU ASSHAT!”

 

The man who had tried to assault her tried again, but she kicks him in the face with all the force she has. It makes him yell out with the thought that he broke his nose. 

 

“It’s not worth it, Dan. You can jack off faster than you can fuck her.”

 

“If any of you try to rape me, you will get a broken nose and a dick that hurts. Understand me?” Shuri states and demands in a deathly tone. 

 

The guy with the broken nose chuckles. “You’re not in charge here, your highness. Not like back in your precious sheltered palace with your sugar daddies.” The man, Dan, crawls over to her with the intention of taking off her bra. This time, however, three other guys held her down. 

 

“You’re insane!” Shuri snaps. “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!”

 

He threw her bra to the side. Cool air ran across her chest.

 

“Touch me and your death will be extra slow!”

 

He did, however, touch her, slowly grazing her.

 

“I know what you’re trying to do here. You’re trying to break me. Well guess what, you bastards? You can’t break me.”

 

Dan squeezed her nipple.

 

“You haven’t known me long enough to know that.”

  
  
  


No one, surprisingly, had come to see Tony in the lab yet. Partially, it was because no one knew he was there. But then again, they thought he went to bed. 

 

Haha.

 

Wrong. 

 

There was no way in hell Tony was stopping. Shuri was his daughter and he would not stand for his girl to be tortured and assaulted and...maybe even raped. Killed?

 

No. They couldn’t kill her.

 

He’d get to her before that could happen. 

 

Tony didn’t know how she just slipped through his fingers, as well as T’Challa’s. How did a man like that get her and the world’s most powerful superheroes didn’t get her in time. Not even the Dora Milaje, an amazingly talented and badass super-squad, had gotten her in time. Okoye had fought so hard, and T’Challa had searched the palace so much. 

 

But there was no one in the palace or anywhere close when they found out someone had entered her room. It was still a mystery how he vanished so fast.

 

Oh god, Peter was sleeping in his bedroom alone.

 

“Boss, we’re getting a video.”

 

Tony who had his head in his hands from a mixture of exhaustion, mortification, and stress, lifted his head and demanded Friday to answer the call. 

 

It was a more different imagery than every one of them because this time, Shuri was alone, or at least it seemed so. 

 

“Is there anyone else in the room, Shuri?”

 

“No, just me. They allowed me to take a dump, so I set up the video to record when they were gone.”

 

“Okay, Shuri, you need to listen really closely. You need to look at anything and everything around you and find any hints of where you are!”

 

“I’ve already looked everywhere, Baba, all I know is that it looks like an African hut in the middle of an African nowhere,” She replied in a whisper. 

 

Tony noticed that she had called him Baba again, but that wasn’t the point of anything, as sweet as it was to be acknowledged as that. He could smile about her calling him Baba when she got home and she was in his arms. 

 

“Shuri, did they take the emergency bracelet I gave you?”

 

“They took it off right when they took me. I pressed it, but they ripped it off and threw it out the window.”

 

That was one of the only ways they knew she was in trouble. The emergency bracelet Tony made her. It was supposed to bring her an iron suit as well as alerting the palace security and the Dora Milaje. But that didn’t work. It didn’t get to her in time. He didn’t know how, but he’d make a new and much better bracelet...Hell, he might want to keep a suit in her room as well.

 

“Don’t you have bobby pins to get out of those cuffs?”

 

“I did, but they pulled out my hair. The nearest bobby pin is in a corner.”

 

“Pockets?”

 

“No.”

 

“Yeah, well, we’re coming to get you soon. Find anything you can to get you out, if you can.” As Tony finished, though, he finally addressed it in his head. Shuri was shirtless, only in her bra and shorts. They’d been doing things to her, no doubt. But had they…He couldn’t even say it in his head. 

 

Tony swallowed. She wouldn’t even hear that or see the pained expression he had. He wasn’t really sure if he could even ask it. God, his chest was starting to hurt, and his shoulders felt heavy. 

 

“Did they-” But Tony stopped because he didn’t realize that his voice would come out seeming so choked. 

 

“What?” He heard Shuri’s voice whisper. A girl with such a precious and meaningful voice to him could have that happen to her?

 

His voice came out so incredibly small that Shuri probably didn’t hear him. 

 

“Did they rape you?”

 

He saw Shuri sharply inhale. 

 

“No-”

 

“YOU BITCH!”

 

Tony nearly pushed back in his seat from being so startled. A giant man came into the picture, hovering over Shuri. The camera lost its sight.

 

“Boss, I’m sensing a severe-”

 

Tony didn’t really hear it, anyways. Besides, he knew what it was. Not like he hadn’t felt it before. Except it had been so long since he’d felt this-he’d been happy and healthy-recovering. A long recovery coming close to relatively successful because you don’t just “lose” the trauma. But no. This had to happen to his baby. 

 

He was literally about to fall out of his chair. Tony’s attempts to breathe properly were faulty, and he shook through the wave of anxiety flooding through him. It was a flood and he was sinking very quickly and very harshly-brutally, more like. This was brutal. It, of course, was nowhere near as brutal as what his baby was going through, but he’d grown to care a little bit more about his own feelings through the while. 

 

Five minutes passed slowly, but it felt like ten minutes to Tony. When he finally took a small glance at the time, he nearly scoffed. He didn’t have the energy to scoff, though. The exhaustion doubled by his panic attack was taking a toll on him. 

 

A really big-ass toll on him.

 

By the time he had settled down enough to move out of his chair, his eyes found the sofa, and the his feet found the floor. Tony practically stumbled to the sofa and passed out there, for the night, Shuri still in the hut.

* * *

 

“I need to take a dump again.”

 

Thankfully, the man let her up, so then she could also put her shirt back on. Shuri didn’t have a master plan by doing this, but she was still pretty damn fast. When she actually took a dump earlier, she thought it possibly was South Africa, and a certain area of it outside of Cape Town, only a mile outside of it. There was some woods, as well, very close to the hut. Her plan was to hopefully reach Cape Town and dial Tony’s number. If not...well, she could survive in the woods. 

 

The man unchained her and she went outside. He warned her earlier that he’d strip her naked if she ran, but she didn’t care. Shuri was sure she could do it. She knew she could run. 

 

She pretended to pull down her shorts, but she was actually scanning the area. It was suddenly harsh, because she couldn’t believe she could see a road in the distance. Just a plain old road. 

 

Shuri wanted to sprint to it in an instant, but she felt so unsure. Did anyone even drive on that road, or was it just abandoned?

 

Suddenly, a simple truck came up on the road and passed the expansive field. 

 

Shuri took a deep breath. Hitchhiking could turn out good or bad, but she couldn’t think it was worse than this. 

 

She sprinted, the medium-sized elevation between her and the road giving her extra momentum. Yelling occured behind her. 

 

Shuri’s legs propelled her continuously, then starting to use her arms to push her even further. She was just over halfway with just getting out of the hut. 

 

But there was then a gunshot.

 

Shuri tripped to the ground, the dirt scratching her knees. She ignored it, though, and stumbled up as quickly as possible to keep getting to the road. There was a car coming up, and she wasn’t going to miss it. Besides, it looked friendly. It was an old dark-skinned man in a truck. She could do it. She was gonna get out, and she was going to go home. 

 

“STOP!”

 

The man looked startled and slammed on the brakes. Shuri practically stumbled into the seat and yanked the door closed. “GO, PLEASE GO!” Shuri screamed. 

 

The man sped off, but not without bullets being shot at his car. The man exclaimed in another African language, and the car swerved around on the road. 

 

Shuri couldn’t let it crashed. She snatched the wheel from the poor man and told him to keep his foot on the wheel. But within another few seconds, the car lost control. 

 

She screamed and put her head down, fearing for her life. The far flipped onto its side where Shuri’s door was towards the hut-side of the road. Glass had broken and there were bullet holes in the truck. The man also may have been dead. 

 

Shuri panted and gasped, barely able to function. She could smell gasoline and coughed out. The need to get out of the car was severe, and the need to run was higher. But the men caught up with her by now. 

 

Dan opened the door and Shuri rolled onto the ground, panting.

 

“You’re in for it now.”

* * *

 

“We found where Shuri is.”

 

Peter didn’t even bother to put anything on over his pajamas or feet more than the socks he had on. He bursted out of his bed and out of the room, ignoring Pepper’s calls. They found Shuri. He needed to be down there as fast as he could because every second he remembered he slept the more angry at himself he got. He didn’t mean to go to sleep. He just meant to lay down and cry and to stop crying. He didn’t mean to cry himself to sleep. 

 

Peter slid right past the front entrance of the room. No, literally. He slid past it because of his socks against the granite ground. He used the wall entrance to get into the room.“Where’s Shuri?!” Peter exclaimed. 

 

“Peter, they only found where she is, supposedly!” Pepper says, coming up behind him in an actual pair of shoes. 

 

“I know, but where?!”

 

“She’s in South Africa outside of Cape Town. Not very good choice, if you ask me,” Ramonda judges, standing in front of the round screen table beside her son.

 

“We’re about to go get her,” Tony says, standing up from his workspace chair. “Me, T’Challa, and a few Dora Milaje.”

 

“I need to go-”

 

“No, Peter, it’s dangerous! They might want to get you too and I can’t let that happen!”

 

“But-”

 

“No buts, Peter. I love you, so I can’t let anything happen to you too! If these men have been able to keep Shuri for this long, god knows what they can do to you!”

 

The “I love you” shut Peter up. Shuri was out there and he couldn’t. They may not even find her. Shuri could be-

 

No.

 

She wasn’t dead. 

 

Shuri was strong- _ so _ strong. Killing her was impossible. 

 

“Okay, well we need to go now before they possibly move her! Something could happen to her at any possible moment!”

  
  


In his iron suit, Tony kicked down the door to the hut and his heart sank dramatically low. 

 

Empty. 

 

Okoye entered the hut next with T’Challa behind her. They immediately saw how abandoned it was, as well. They saw nothing that was from the videos. No chains or articles of clothing, definitely no camera or camera stand. 

 

Tony sighed. “Goddammit.”

 

“She’s not here,” Okoye observes with a hint of anger.

 

“Yeah, I see that!” He snaps. He takes it back, though. “I’m sorry, I’m just mad that she’s not here. I thought we’d actually get her…”

 

“We all did, Stark. We will find her, though. They cannot hide from my spear for long.”

 

Tony kept searching the hut and outside of it. He noticed a few drops of dried blood on the floor where she was chained up. Outside, there was a hole dug, damp with urine, and woods in the distance along with a road.

 

They took her somewhere, and it definitely wasn’t as close as the forest or road.

 

“I found something!” T’Challa announces. 

 

Tony goes back inside to where T’Challa held something up, Okoye and the two other Dora Milaje, Ayo and Mahari, stood where the king stood. He held a note in his hands, a note of grayish-white paper with pitch black writing on it. 

 

Tony stepped closer to look at it, his jaw clenching at what it said as his helmet came off. 

 

_ Kazagwan Hotel. _

 

_ Hurare. _

 

_ Zimbabwe. _

 

_ It’s time you see her in pain, Stark. _

 

It had been done to hurt him.

 

Him, not simply her, but  _ him _ .

 

Tears hadn’t approached him since his panic attack. Then, he’d been alone, and no one had seen him fall apart. But he was with others, this time. 

 

“Okay, well to Zimbabwe it is,” Tony suggests quickly, closing his helmet before stepping outside and flying off, ignoring T’Challa’s calls for him. But thankfully, they all had earpieces. 

 

“Stark! We’ll catch up to you, but there’s someone there you need to find that can help. Her name is Nakia! I’ll tell her to meet you outside that hotel!”

 

“Right, got it, black cat!”

 

T’Challa sighed as Stark became invisible with the sky. “I told him to stop calling me that.”

 

He got to Hurare pretty quickly, and was able to land very quietly in an allyway to get out of his suit and pull a hoodie over his head. Nakia was at the end waiting for him. 

 

“Never had the pleasure. Nakia, is it?” He asks.

 

“Yes, I’m Nakia. Shuri’s located inside on the fifth floor. We need to get in there as discreetly as possible, and that’s not going to be through the front entrance.”

 

“Okay, so we climb up to the room, break the windows?”

 

“That’s not exactly discreet either, but it works better than knocking down the door.”

 

“We don’t really have a choice. We have to get her out as quickly as possible.”

 

“Agreed. But do you have a way to even get to the window?”

* * *

 

They’d thrown Shuri on the sofa where she quickly dozed off to sleep. It was the first time she’d been in comfortable temperatures since she was kidnapped. It’d been a little too warm for her comfort, so she’d sweated a lot. She couldn’t shower, though. They would only let her lay there. 

 

Her sleep wasn’t comfortable, anyways, being on a small sofa. So the chances of hearing something outside was higher. 

 

Shuri found the strength in her arms to push herself from her position of lying down. The sound grew a little louder, making her twist around. She ignored the sharp pain from doing so because what was outside her window was too great to ignore.

 

“Baba!” She whisper-shouted.

 

Shuri practically rolled off the sofa and crawled to the window, seeing if there was any way to open it up. There was, however, a way to open it, Shuri found. She pushed her fingers against it to open it, but her arms had lost a lot of its normal strength because of the hanging.

 

She looked up Tony’s suit with him inside of it, mouthing that she couldn’t open it.

 

Before Tony could respond, two men came into the room, one dashing to snatch Shuri. He crashed through the window, however, before he let that happen, tackling the man trying to grab Shuri to the ground. 

 

Nakia burst inside afterward, fighting another three men while Tony shielded Shuri from one of the men who grabbed her. He quickly knocked him to the ground. “Nakia, I’m taking her outside!”

 

“You might not want to, Stark.”

 

Tony continued to shield Shuri, but listened to the voice and saw its owner come out from the side. 

 

“Oh, I think I want to after you hang her, make her bleed, try to rape her. I don’t want anyone I love around you bastards,” He growled. 

 

Charles chuckled. “Love as in giving yourself a good time or-”

 

Tony immediately slammed him to the ground, not tolerating his disgusting words. He would never do such thing to anyone. The idea was sickening. It was nearly nauseating. 

 

“Loving her is not this.”

 

He’s furious, and everyone around him knows it. Furious enough to pop out one of his suit’s shivs? Yes. Probably. 

 

Right in front of Sqazner’s heart?

 

Yes.

 

Nakia gives a final blow to the man, knocking him to the ground. “Stark? Stark!”

 

Tony turns his head to her, stopping him from piercing his chest.

 

“He needs to be alive for a trial-they all do! People demand it!”

 

“A trial?!” He asks stunned. His voice raised. “They want Shuri to be in the same room with men who hung her, tortured her, TOUCHED her?!” He yelled. Tony was in disbelief. 

 

“It is JUSTICE-”

 

“It is  _ CRUEL _ !”

 

“Nakia…”

 

Tony and Nakia immediately looked down at Shuri’s obviously forced and quiet voice. She was trying her best. The weight of everything had permeated her body. Her voice was no exception.

 

“I...don’t want to ever see that man again in my-”

 

A hand grabbed Shuri’s throat and shoved itself down her bra, Shuri yelping. 

 

He had enough. He was done. He was done with watching her get assaulted.

 

He was done with his baby girl being hurt.

 

Tony plunged the shiv into Charle’s chest and tried to shield Shuri from the blood at the same time. Shuri gasped for breath as she looked away from him falling to the ground. 

 

The shiv disappeared into his armor, revealing Shuri’s face underneath. The armor deactivated so it was just Tony’s body. No armor. Just Tony.  

 

His helmet collapsed into itself. “Shuri, hon-”

 

Shuri used her last bit of major energy to hug him tightly, even though every bit of her body was sore as hell. Tears poured and poured out of her eyes. Tony returned it, accepting her into his arms and rubbing her back.

 

“I love you, Baba…”

 

Baba.

 

She called him that again. 

 

“I love you too, baby girl.”

* * *

 

Silence. 

 

But then not.

 

Her fingers were pretty deft on the piano keys for a beginner. It was a mostly gentle song by Imagine Dragons called Demons. She liked it. Most of her music taste was more upbeat but this one was special. 

 

It was the first song she’s learned on the piano. 

 

Her fingers moved smoothly across the white and black. Surrounding her was oddly similar to a piano. Outside of her floor-to-ceiling windows was a very deep gray sky over Wakanda. It was storm season, now, and the storms tended to be heavy. 

 

She took a breath. 

 

“  _ When the days are cold and the cards all fold and the saints we see are all made of gold _

 

_ When your dreams all fail and the ones we hail are the worst of all and the blood runs still _

 

_ I wanna hide the truth I wanna shelter you _

 

_ But with the beast inside _

 

_ There’s nowhere we can hide _

 

_ No matter what we breed we still are made of greed _

 

_ This is my kingdom come _

 

_ This is my kingdom come _

 

_ When you feel my heat _

 

_ Look into my eyes _

 

_ It’s where my demons hide _

 

_ It’s where my demons hide _

 

_ Don’t get too close _

 

_ It’s dark inside _

 

_ It’s where my demons hide _

 

_ It’s where my demons hi- _ ”

 

There was a knock at her door that made her curse.

 

Shuri swallowed, embarrassed. “Come in.”

 

The door opened up. 

 

“You’ve been doing really good at the piano, hon.”

 

She turned around and smiled. “Thank you, Baba.”

 

“Well it’s ‘cause I taught you, but, ya know. You’ve kinda added your own, uh, touch to it.” Tony came and sat down next to her on the long piano bench. 

 

He took a breath. “Also, your voice is gorgeous.”

 

“No, not really.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“No.”

 

“Beautiful, never heard anything like it.”

 

“...”

 

“Just take the compliment, kiddo.”

 

Shuri softly laughs. “Okay,” She whispers. 

 

Tony smiles, but then sighs. “They still want to try the other men, Shuri.”

 

Shuri’s jaw clenches, thinking of one man getting into her bra. 

 

She only hummed. 

 

“I’m sorry, honey, I’ve been trying to tell them you didn’t want a trial, but I think they’ll only listen to you about it...If you can...please tell them you don’t want the trial.”

 

“I will.”

 

“I mean like, if you don’t want to, if you actually want to have it-”

 

“I just don’t want to ever see those bastards again...even if they’re still alive or dead.”

 

Tony only nodded. The images flooded his head. Some of the worst images he’d ever seen, honestly. It was up there in the ranks with blowing up the Chitauri and Thanos…

 

Up there with Peter blowing away into dust.

 

But it was someone he loved being hurt like that.

 

Tony had to shake the thoughts, and so did Shuri. 

 

“But the piano playing and singing was great...Could I hear some more?”  
  


**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Rise](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16194974) by [Karlethandra_Merthensa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karlethandra_Merthensa/pseuds/Karlethandra_Merthensa)




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